Ulster Unionist Agriculture and Rural Affairs Spokesperson Diana Armstrong MLA has used Rural Crime Week to highlight domestic abuse in rural communities, warning that isolation, distance and the fear of being recognised keep too many victims from coming forward.

Diana Armstrong MLA said:

“When we talk about rural crime the picture that comes to mind is a stolen quad or a broken shed door. Rural Crime Week rightly takes a wider view, and one of the hardest issues it raises is domestic abuse.

“Across Northern Ireland the police attend a domestic abuse incident every seventeen minutes. In rural areas there are barriers on top of the abuse itself. Response times are longer. In a small community you may worry that the officer at the door, or the person who sees your car outside the health centre, knows your family.

“I represent Fermanagh and South Tyrone and I see how those barriers work here. A woman in a townland outside Rosslea, Kinawley or Aughnacloy may be thirty miles or more from the nearest refuge, with no bus and often only one car in the household. If she does not control that car, or the money for the diesel in it, she is not going anywhere. There are parts of my constituency where the mobile signal will not carry a phone call, never mind a webchat. Along the border, the nearest town may be one she cannot turn to for services at all.

“There is something else particular to farming families. When your home is also your business, and the land and the herd are in someone else's name or tied up in a family partnership, leaving does not mean losing a house. It means losing your home, your income, your work and often your standing in a community you married into, all in the one afternoon. That is an enormous thing to ask of anyone, and it is why so many women stay far longer than they should have to.

“I want anyone in that situation to know two things. You are not alone, and help does not require you to decide your whole future on the first phone call. The Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline is free and confidential, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, on 0808 802 1414.

“To the wider rural community, this is everybody's business. Neighbours, marts, church groups, young farmers' clubs and vets are often the only people who see a family regularly. Noticing, and asking gently, matters more in a townland than it does in a street.

“I would also ask the Justice Minister to look closely at whether rural victims are getting the same access to refuge and outreach as those in our towns and cities. Living in the countryside should never mean a lower standard of protection.”